Happy Veterans Day to all who served, giving their time, and
often their health and their lives, in the service of their countries.
Veterans Day always makes me remember something
that happened when I was a Docent at the Civil War Museum in Philadelphia. It was an interesting place, originally
started by an association of retired Union Army officers, who donated their
collections of memorabilia, much of it legendary. As they died off, the house
in which they met was established as the museum.
People often came to look up relatives or ancestors (I found
two of mine, and it was like meeting old friends) and research for theses or
novels (as did I).
I enjoyed the time, and the collections themselves had
interesting stories, some of them sad, some of them very amusing.
I remember one afternoon, though, when I paused to speak
with another docent. He was laughing at
something that had just happened.
“Oh, someone came in and wanted to look up his
great-grandfather or someone. Said he’d
served in the Union Navy! He wanted to
know about the fellow, find the name of his ship.”
“Did you find him?” I asked, remembering how hard it had
been to find Josef Myers of Ohio, my great-great grandfather.
“I certainly did.”
The other was laughing. “Yeah, I
found him! Hah! He spent the entire war assigned to a ship
that stayed in Philadelphia.”
I frowned, but said nothing more. I did mention it to my father, who had served
as a naval officer in World War II, Korea and Vietnam. Dad, bless him, summarized things in his
usual pithy fashion.
“He thought that was laughable?” Dad said. “I bet he never served. Listen: that man went where he was sent and
did what he had to do. He had no say in
whether they were fighting other ships or enforcing the blockade. For all he knew he might have been sent into
battle at any moment. He was a veteran,
with no reason to hang his head and feel foolish. I hope that fellow was proud of his
grandfather, no matter what that idiot said!”Ah, Dad! I still miss you. Happy Veterans Day to all who served.
